JPS_ASV_Byz(i)
1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou make thine ear attend unto wisdom, and thy heart incline to discernment;
3 Yea, if thou call for understanding, and lift up thy voice for discernment;
4 If thou seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD giveth wisdom, out of His mouth cometh knowledge and discernment;
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright, He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;
8 That He may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of His godly ones.
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, and equity, yea, every good path.
10 For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall watch over thee, discernment shall guard thee;
12 To deliver thee from the way of evil, from the men that speak froward things;
13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of evil;
15 Who are crooked in their ways, and perverse in their paths;
16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words;
17 That forsaketh the lord of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18 For her house sinketh down unto death, and her paths unto the shades;
19 None that go unto her return, neither do they attain unto the paths of life;
20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the whole-hearted shall remain in it.
22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the faithless shall be plucked up out of it.